I proposed a large package of education reforms, arguing that we should change the way we spend the more than $15 billion a year of education aid to ‘support what works and stop supporting what doesn’t work,’ by requiring states to end social promotion,
turn around failing schools or shut them down. I again asked Congress to provide funds to build or modernize 5000 schools and to approve a six-fold increase in the number of college scholarships for students who commit to teaching in under-served areas.
Source: My Life, by Bill Clinton, p.843
Jun 21, 2004
Reasonable range of religious expression in schools
I signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which was intended to protect a reasonable range of religious expression in public areas like schools and workplaces. The bill was designed to reverse a 1990 Supreme Court decision giving states more
authority to regulate religious expression in such areas. America is full of people deeply committed to their very diverse faiths. I thought the bill struck the right balance between protecting their rights and the need for public order.
Source: My Life, by Bill Clinton, p.558
Jun 21, 2004
1997: Established middle class entitlement: 2 years college
Clinton managed to gain approval for several new, and rather large, social programs that had been at the heart of his own wish list.
There was the more than $30 billion in new tax credits for higher education; in effect, this made the first two years of college a middle-class entitlement. By 1999, an astonishing ten million of the 14 million
Americans eligible would take advantage of this credit.
This was an achievement ignored by Clinton's critics. "These aren't big pieces of legislation. These are scraps off the table," said one critic. "It ain't the
GI Bill of Rights."
But the college tax credit plan passed in 1997 was LARGER than the GI Bill of Rights, which only applied to returning World War II veterans.
We have made education a high priority, focusing on standards, accountability and choice in public schools, and on making a college education available to every American -- with increased Pell Grant scholarships, better student loan and work-study
programs, and the HOPE scholarship and other tax credits to help families pay for college tuition. Because of these efforts, more young people have the chance to make the most of their God-given abilities, and take their place in the high-tech world.
Source: Speech by President Bill Clinton
Aug 7, 1999
1986 initiative: Good beginnings, Good schools, & Good jobs
Bill Clinton had successfully reinvented himself as Boy Wonder, and in November 1986 he again beat Frank White to win the state's first four-year term as governor. In his inaugural speech, he presented a comprehensive set of initiatives for "Making
Arkansas Work--Good Beginning, Good Schools, and Good Jobs." Hard economic times and slumping tax revenues might once have suggested cutting back on education and human development spending, he said. "But that will not work today.
In our highly integrated, highly competitive world economy, wither we press ahead or we are pushed back.
There is no status quo." It was a brilliant speech, delivered well. Time and again he was interrupted by applause.
Both teachers and students must demonstrate competence
We must do more to make sure education meets the needs of our children and the demands of the future. First and foremost, he must continue to hold students, teachers, and school to the highest standards. We must ensure students can demonstrate competence
to be promoted and to graduate. Teachers must also demonstrate competence, and we should be prepared to reward the best ones, and remove those who don’t measure up, fairly and expeditiously.
Source: Between Hope and History, by Bill Clinton, p. 44
Jan 1, 1996
Need not leave religion at the schoolhouse door
Some families have been frustrated to see their children denied even the most private forms of religious expression in public schools. Here is where I stand: I believe the First Amendment does not require students to leave their religion at the
schoolhouse door. Just as we wouldn’t want students to leave at home the values they learn from religion, we should not require them to refrain from religious expression. Reinforcing those values is an important part of every school’s mission.
Source: Between Hope and History, by Bill Clinton, p.138
Jan 1, 1996
Private student prayer OK; but no official school prayer
I believe the Supreme Court was right a generation ago to prohibit any public authority from creating an official school prayer and making students recite it. But there is absolutely nothing improper about students wanting to reflect upon their faith.
Students can pray privately and individually whenever they want. They can express their beliefs in homework, through artwork, and during class presentations, as long as its relevant to the assignment. They can form religious clubs in high school.
Source: Between Hope and History, by Bill Clinton, p.139
Jan 1, 1996
1984 budget proposed $180M for Hillary's education reform
In Hillary's Ed Reform Report, a demand for statewide teacher testing was less well received. The proposal unleashed a torrent of opposition and the teachers' union geared up for war. The National Education
Association fought the test in court but failed.
The governor's legislative package that year included a proposed $180 million tax increase for education. The revenues were to come from a highly controversial sales tax increase.
The teachers test, which was popular with parents if not teachers, was a way to make the people of Arkansas feel they were "getting" something--accountability--for their hard-earned tax money.
Clinton said he felt "it is a small price to pay for the biggest tax increase in the history of the state and to restore the teaching profession to the position of public esteem that I think it deserves."
Expand public school choice and public charter schools
The FY 2000 budget provides a $134 million accountability fund to help turn around the worst performing schools and hold them accountable for results through such measures as overhauling curriculum, improving staffing, or even closing schools and
reopening them as charter schools. This year, the President is proposing to double funding for this fund to turn around the nation’s failing schools to ensure all children receive a quality education.
The Clinton-Gore Administration has worked to
expand public school choice and support the growth of public charter schools, which have increased from one public charter school in the nation in 1992 to more than 1,700 today. More than 250,000 students nationwide are now enrolled in charter schools
in 30 states and the District of Columbia. The President won $145 million in FY 2000 -- and has proposed $175 million in his FY01 budget -- to continue working toward his goal of establishing 3,000 quality charter schools by 2002.
Source: WhiteHouse.gov web site
Jul 2, 2000
Reward best public schools; redesign failing ones
We should reward the best schools, and we should shut down or redesign those that fail, and especially those that are unsafe. That’s one reason why I have supported expanding school choice and charter schools-creative new schools started by parents and
teachers and licensed by school systems. And it’s why I have announced a new $5 billion program to renovate and modernize school buildings badly in need of repair-in inner cities, suburbs, and one-stoplight towns.
Source: Between Hope and History, by Bill Clinton, p. 44
Jan 1, 1996
Offer every parent Charter Schools and public school choice.
Clinton adopted the manifesto, "A New Agenda for the New Decade":
Create World-Class Public Schools Now more than ever, quality public education is the key to equal opportunity and upward mobility in America. Yet our neediest children often attend the worst schools. While lifting the performance of all schools, we must place special emphasis on strengthening those institutions serving, and too often failing, low-income students.
To close this achievement and opportunity gap, underperforming public schools need more resources, and above all, real accountability for results. Accountability means ending social promotion, measuring student performance with standards-based assessments, and testing teachers for subject-matter competency.
As we demand accountability, we should ensure that every school has the resources needed to achieve higher standards, including safe and modern physical facilities, well-paid teachers and staff, and opportunities for remedial help after school and during summers.
Parents, too, must accept greater responsibility for supporting their children’s education.
We need greater choice, competition, and accountability within the public school system, not a diversion of public funds to private schools that are unaccountable to taxpayers. With research increasingly showing the critical nature of learning in the early years, we should move toward universal access to pre-kindergarten education.
Goals for 2010
Turn around every failing public school.
Make charter schools an option in every state and community.
Offer every parent a choice of public schools to which to send his or her child.
Make sure every classroom has well-qualified teachers who know the subjects they teach, and pay teachers more for performance.
Create a safe, clean, healthy, disciplined learning environment for every student.
Make pre-kindergarten education universally available.
Source: The Hyde Park Declaration 00-DLC2 on Aug 1, 2000
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